CNN Cancels Crossfire

blonde rser writes "Three months after Jon Stewart appeared on (and lambasted) CNN's Crossfire the Globe and Mail reports that CNN is dumping Tucker Carlson. It appears that Crossfire is being canceled and Carlson's contract is not being renewed. As to whether Stewart's opinion had any affect on the decision there is this quote from Jonathan Klein, CEO of CNN's US network: 'I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart camp.'"

Comments

How did Carlson land that job anyways?

[HolyCoitus]

I don't know a single person that likes him, regardless of their political interests. If he were on Slashdot, he'd have been modded -1 flamebait immediately and never thought of again.

I'm curious though. What's his background that earned him the spot on a show like Crossfire? He had to have done something that made him in the spotlight in some way before that I would assume?

Re:How did Carlson land that job anyways?

[xanderwilson]

In today's world of pundits, you don't need to have a background in hard news research and fact-checking. You just have to have an opinion and, preferably, a marketable personality. I'd like to see more seasoned journalists do news analysis, rather than people on all sides with their minds decided before they collect the facts to back their opinions up.

Alex.

I doubt the sincerity of that comment!

[Dr. Spork]

If the CEO of CNN really thought what he said he thought, CNN USA would look very different. I first thought their terrible and deliberately distorted news coverage had to do with their incompetence (or lack of resources). But this isn't true. I've spent a few days watching CNN Europe, and I have to tell you that it is a far better news channel. They actually do balanced and interesting stories, and are generally much less Tucker-Carlson-like. So the crap they're brodcasting into the USA is deliberately dumbed down. They actually have less-dumbed-down versions of all their big stories, but they just don't broadcast them in North America.

I saw Jon Stewart on Crossfire and from what I could gather from his rant, he objected to the institution of Republicans and Democrats yelling slogans from their talking points list, and pretending it's debate... and then pretending that reports like "Democrats claim X; Republicans claim Y" is news. So what if Crossfire is over. Everything that JS freaked out about is absolutely at the foundation of the way CNN reports. Crossfire is just reveals that formula in an especially naked way. So I don't understand how somebody could agree with JS and still be CEO of CNN-USA.

Props to Jon Stewart

[ed333]

We need more people like Jon Stewart to actually say whats on their mind.

Re:AKA "Carlson gets a better, more visible job"

[alex413x]

Hey, we can always hope that JS shows up on that show and owns Carlson there, too.

A parade of human cartoons

[AtariAmarok]

The show became a parade of human cartoons. Novak the duckman. Lord Voldecarville. Pat "Third Reich from the Sun" Buchanan. Let's leave this kind of thing to Warner Bros Daffy vs Bugs cartoons.

I'll be the first to say it...

[bizpile]

...Jon Stewart '08. (Hopefully Lewis Black will be his running mate.)

It's Official

[mshiltonj]

John Stewart -- The Most Powerful Comedian In News.

Re:AKA "Carlson gets a better, more visible job"

[Alomex]

Mod parent down. The poster and the editor did read the article and summarized it properly.

Crossfire was cancelled and Carlson did not get a more visible job. CNN has about twice as many viewers as MSNBC in America

misunderstanding steward

[elbarrio]

From what I gather, this is a total misunderstanding of what Jon Stewart was trying to say. As I understood it, he was trying to say that the problem is that we refuse to have real debate. crossfire, as Jon sees it (so I think), engages in theatre, not debate. The criticism of the media is that they fake being even handed, and by doing so don't actually provide meaningful analysis. The interpretation that debate in all forms should go is way off. Debating an issue and reading the party-line propaganda are two completely different things.